Autumn
by InsideMyBrain
Summary: It's finally sweater weather, and Ludwig can't wait to break out his warmest, coziest sweaters. The only problem is he can't seem to find any of them. Short gerkraine oneshot written from the prompt 'autumn'.


The wind howled outside Ludwig's bedroom, the rain threw itself at the glass of his window. Occasionally a rumble of thunder could be heard, followed by a brief flash of lightning. The street was gloomy, the normally cheerful-looking autumn leaves that littered the ground muddy and wet from the storm.

The whirr of a space heater could be heard, mixed in with the sound of the rain. It swiveled monotonously, blowing heated air around the small room. On one side of the cozily warm room was a bed, neatly heaped with blankets and pillows. On the other side was an open closet, clothes spilling from it. Shirts were tossed all over the normally tidy room.

Ludwig was sitting on the bed, huffing, partially from exertion and partially from annoyance. His blond hair, which had previously been carefully styled, was tousled and messy. A single strand hung in front of his blue eyes, and he flicked it away in annoyance.

Realizing it was much too hot in the room, he got up and unplugged the space heater. The whirring died slowly, leaving him with nothing but the wind and rain.

Ludwig couldn't find any of his sweaters.

It was irritating, because usually his things were organized. Usually, he wouldn't be missing anything. But he'd just spent - he checked his watch - half an hour looking for a sweater. He'd completely emptied his entire closet, getting slowly more frustrated as he reached the dregs, finding not a sweater but those boots he hadn't worn in two years.

Now, Ludwig owned about twelve sweaters, so it shouldn't have been that hard to find one. He had sweaters in every colour and pattern, even an ugly Christmas sweater for December. He loved being wrapped in the fuzzy warmth of cozy sweaters. And tonight, with the rain driving relentlessly and the wind blowing mercilessly, seemed like the perfect night to wear a sweater.

Of course it had to be tonight when he couldn't find one.

With a sigh, Ludwig kneeled down and began to pick up the clothes all over his floor. He'd only tidied up about a quarter of his clothes when his doorbell rang.

He exited his bedroom and walked down the hall. Upon opening the door, he found his girlfriend.

Irina was dripping wet, from her blonde hair to her rubber boots, but she smiled to see him. She was wearing a long black overcoat and her messenger bag was slung over her shoulder.

She stepped into his apartment quickly and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. She broke away quickly and grinned, and Ludwig tasted her fruity lip balm.

"Hi!" She said breathlessly.

"Hey." Ludwig closed the door behind her. "What brings you here?"

"Movies," She answered simply. "I thought it'd be the perfect night."

"You brought physical movies?" Ludwig asked incredulously.

"Netflix never has the good stuff," Irina said airily, taking off her shoes. "Do you have any popcorn?"

Ludwig chortled. "Yeah, I think so, but I gotta check. I also gotta check if the DVD player still works." He laughed once more and moved down the hall to his tiny kitchen. Irina could hear cupboards opening and closing.

Irina unzipped her coat and took her bag into the living room. She flopped on the couch and yawned.

Ludwig entered the room, holding a bag of microwave popcorn. He glanced at Irina, then did a double take. "Hey!"

"What?"

"You're wearing my sweater!"

Irina glanced down. Her sweater was an emerald green, with small white striped running across it. The sleeves hung past her fingertips. "Oh yeah," She replied. "I forgot this was yours."

"So you stole all my sweaters!" Ludwig said accusingly, sitting down beside Irina.

"Maybe. What can I say, they're cute," She giggled. "Besides, all _my_ sweaters are too tight in the chest."

Ludwig snorted. He put the bag of popcorn aside as a slight smirk curled the side of his lips up.

"Stealing is wrong," He pretended to admonish. "There needs to be some sort of repercussion for this."

"No," Irina said, catching on. She scooted down the couch, away from Ludwig. "Don't you dare!"

Ludwig let out a peal of laughter as he pounced, beginning to tickle his girlfriend viciously.

"No, stop!" Irina yelled, though she was laughing uncontrollably. "I swear to God, Ludwig Beilschmidt-!" She broke off her sentence with a round of high pitched giggles. She flailed her arms feebly, though that only allowed Ludwig to tickle her more.

Eventually, Irina landed a kick to Ludwig's stomach, which sent him back to the other side of the couch. She sat up, panting.

"Let's just watch a damn movie," She panted, which made Ludwig lose it. She joined in laughing after a few moments.

When they'd calmed down - which was some time later - Irina spread out her movie choices on the coffee table.

"Heathers?"

"Or we could watch Saw."

"Or we could not."

"Why did you bring it then?"

"I'm like 90% sure this is yours. Or maybe your brother's. One of you left it at my house, I'm just bringing it back."

Ludwig grabbed the Saw DVD and hopped off the couch. "In that case, I haven't seen it for a while. I'd like to refresh my memory."

Irina groaned while he put the DVD in the player. As the disc was being scanned, he settled back into the couch, one arm around her.

"You're going to return my sweaters, right?"

There was a pause before she answered.

"Ah, no."


End file.
